inquidcoach

[inquidcoach]

Food for thought - Solve this problem!

So this past April, my team Indiana University Quidditch, made their first appearance at the Quidditch World Cup. We went 1-4 facing quite a few good teams that we thought we would have had a decent shot against if we had even half of our team that typically practiced with us. That’s what I want to talk about.

A lot of teams have been struggling with this at the collegiate level and we’ll see how MLQ does with travel games. Commitment, commitment is what I want to talk about. Why do some teams have players always show up to tournaments no matter how far away they are or how hard the timing is with real life? Indiana University had 15 players of their normal 25ish not including their unofficial players attend world cup. I personally think the biggest difference between our team and others, is that other teams expect an upfront cost of going to world cup and tournaments in general.

As a coach, captain, or leader on your team plan for the most expensive cost possible. If you don’t make it as far as you planned and don’t attend as many tournaments, you can get new equipment for the team, throw a party at the end of the season, or get gifts for the players. If you’re in a role of leadership plan out your schedule based on how many tournaments you plan to attend, where they’ll be and approximate gas costs. Even if you know you’ll be attending 5 tournaments, charge an upfront 5 dollars for each tournament, and 5 for travel costs to each away tournament.

The reason I suggest this is that if players already feel like they are paying for something, shelling out another 5 dollars to cover the cost of the tournament then it appears a much smaller cost than what it is. I know since the sport is so much smaller than some competing ones some may consider that charging too much up front is too much to ask and will turn people away. Those people are not the people you want to depend on when it’s late in the season.

Make sure the people that get you to the finish line are the ones that cross over it with you.

#foodforthought quidditch coaching leadership sports

[inquidcoach]

Drillsday - No hands “flying”

Good for chasers and beaters

Especially good with newer players or getting experienced players more equipped to making catches and throws without a hand on the broom. 

Have players hold their respective ball and pass with a partner without holding their broom sticks. I call it squeezing the cheeks. Players can’t hold their broom stick and have to make a certain amount of passes between two points. Beaters can attempt the drill while trying to catch hard throws at each other.

As players get more use to walking have them increase their speed so that it’s more game like.

#quidditch drillsday mugglequidditch inquidcoach

[inquidcoach]

Inspiration

“The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.” - Ayn Rand

#inspiration quidditch 2016season

[inquidcoach]

Inspiration

Don't hit snooze in the morning, you'll end up working for someone who doesn't.

[inquidcoach]

Food for thought - focus group on expansion to different age groups

So about a month ago I participated in a phone conference call that was to serve as an anonymous focus group for USQ. Let me start off by framing my opinion of the focus group as well as the other participants in my focus group:

Ridiculous, and ignorant!

I’m jumping ahead and want to start off with the way that USQ tried to do this phone conference. I understand they wanted to keep everyone anonymous if they wanted to be, yet they had too many people for a phone conference trying to speak, there were at least 8 of us plus two people from USQ directing the conversation. Next year try 6 people and video conference, way better for letting people know when it’s okay to speak, if they want to be anonymous they can cover their web cam up before they start the conversation.

So the reason I called it ignorant was that out of the 8 of us, not including the USQ members, (there could be more I only wrote down 8 names and missed a couple of them while speaking with a friend during introductions) only three of us had any connection to quidditch in a different age group. I’m included in that 3! One of the other two had helped a friend run a game for kids at his church group, a kidditch match. The only other participant that added any real content to the meeting was a guy from I believe West Virginia that had started a team at a high school nearby, yet all of his questions were on how to start a team.

I quickly became agitated with this individual, I’ll name him WV from now on. He had so many questions on how the people in  the group would start a team for high/middle schoolers and how to overcome quick objections like coed and the physicality of the sport. After a couple of questions I ended up saying “before I ask my next question, I wanted some clarification. Are you letting your quidditch players tackling each other?” He answered “well... yeah.” I quickly mentioned that there are explicit rule changes in the rule book that adapt to high school players and the only change is the lack of tackling. WV from that point on lost all validity talking about running a quidditch program with high school students. His lack of rule knowledge of the game, lack of initiative to come up with really simple answers to early problems in branching to younger groups, and his conflicting statements make me feel for those young students he’s coaching. 

Among the lack of experience we all agreed on quite a few things: Quidditch needed to be brought to a younger age group for sport recognition, improvement in talent for the collegiate level, and (typical answer) because we love quidditch. We all believed that it needed to be USQ looking to expand because no one else would take up the same kind of initiative as USQ.

I mentioned having a high school team membership, and providing certain resources to high school teams similar to new team scholarships and discounts on equipment. Apparently there were high school divisions at previous world cups.

For anyone wanting to create a high school team, really do your research. Make sure you have two people who know the rules inside and out, some kind of teacher sponsor in the school system so you have a gateway to higher ups, and make sure your willing to put in the time. I probably volunteer to coach a total of 7 hours a week, which may not seem like a lot, but in addition to life it adds up quickly.

#USQ coaching foodforthought

[inquidcoach]

Explanation on the lack of posts

I apologize for the lack of posts the last couple of weeks. I've been trying to finish up school as well as prepare for the world cup 8.

I’ve attended the world cup, been to two tournaments, and done a lot of practicing and traveling. I do have two separate drills and currently trying to put all my thoughts into words for my food for thought articles.

#worldcup8 quidditch busy graduation

[inquidcoach]

Inspiration

There may be someone out there who has more talent than you, but there is no excuse for someone to work harder than you.

#quidditch #inspiration

[inquidcoach]

Drillsday - 7+

This drill is something we made up on the fly at a tournament because our passing was not where it needed to be in order for us to play at the same level as our opponents.

This is a chaser drill and all you need is 6 players, one quaffle, and three hoops

Separate the players into two teams of three. One team starts with the quaffle. Their goal is to make 7 or more passes without being intercepted and then score. Both teams are supposed to stay in the keeper zone.

Players are supposed to work on transitioning to defense quickly, defensive skills, moving off the ball, and opening up to move the ball. I personally coach my students and teammates to set picks off ball so that a screen opens up the players for quick passes and open shots.

Adaptations: You can shorten the playing field, add more passes for the chasers or less if you want to speed up your offense.

#coaching inquidcoach drillsday #quidditch

[inquidcoach]

Inspiration

Appreciate everything that you can.

#inspiration

[inquidcoach]

Inspiration

Failure is not fatal, and success is not final.

#inspiration

[inquidcoach]

Had to repost

when someone asks if I'm going to quit quidditch when I graduate

[inquidcoach]

Inspiration

"Whatever your mind can conceive and can believe, it can achieve." - Napoleon Hill

#inspiration

[inquidcoach]

Food for Thought – High School Quidditch

I've done a lot of reading on tumblr blogs about Quidditch. Interestingly enough I've been searching like crazy for high school Quidditch teams in order to compete with them with my high school Quidditch team. Problem is that most high school teams are either in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, or New York. This was extremely disheartening, I eventually found another team and hope that I’ll be able to get in touch with their coach or sponsoring teacher to coordinate a little Indiana HS Quidditch game.

The other thing I came across while searching for an opponent for my Quidditch team, was that there’s a huge dislike for high school Quidditch players. Almost all the collegiate players’ blogs that mention high school teams or players say that there’s little to no skill in those players.

I found this extremely interesting because my high school team that I coach had a ton of talent from the get go. It’s a smaller school and so we happened to get a lot of athletes because the majority of them had to play some sport at some point for the team to exist. Still the majority of the team takes it very seriously and have taken the time to get really familiar with the rules. I would happily take the majority of the high school team for my collegiate team.

I feel that this image of high school teams being really weak should change quickly if we want our sport to expand to the level that it’s capable of. No one can change it until people step up and improve that level of play. I really hope some work is put in by the USQ by making some expansions into high school play.

How many people kept playing after they found out about it in high school? How many wished they could have played in high school? If you have any thoughts on high school Quidditch. I’d love to hear them and why you feel that way.

*sorry about missing drillsday, I've been super busy with the beginning of my final semester and going back to work. 

#foodforthought #coaching

[inquidcoach]

Inspiration

“One of the most important keys to Success is having the discipline to do what you know you should do, even when you don’t feel like doing it.” - Unknown

#inspiration

[inquidcoach]

Food for Thought - Cross Training

I recently completed at the Midwest regional championship. Our team competed against some great teams and I was able to ask a couple of different players what they did practice wise to get to such a high level. Most of them mentioned strong conditioning regiments but across the board most of them mentioned some kind of cross training they went through when they weren’t playing Quidditch. For each position I’ll list what I think is the best cross training and why.

Chaser Maybe it’s because this is my favorite position to play or just that this position connects to more sports. I would suggest primarily cardio exercise, soccer, and swimming. The high level of core work that comes from cardio and swimming is necessary. Plus the longer you can keep a high level of energy the better. Soccer helps with positioning and spacial passing. Chaser styles vary from team to team and cross training is good for just about everything in the aspect of chasing.

Beatter For beating I would obviously say dodge ball and arm training. You have to find exercises that really train your triceps. Throwing accurately and the right strength will get you far. The rest and maybe more of the position is the ability to catch a blunder. If you can’t catch don’t beat. You’re just gonna get frustrated. Dodge ball is great for working on this.

Keeper Weight lifting and basketball. The defensive aspect of quidditch is basically the swats we see on the basketball court. The keeper is gonna be closer defensively to most players and basketball I think keeps you closer to quixotic than any other sport. The thing to remember as keeper is don’t jump before they do or else you’ve already lost.

Seeker Sprints and agility. I would straining like a running back would be the best form of cross training other than long distance running, which honestly is good for all positions. This is the position I deal with the least because my high school team is small and we rarely train seekers. I also have never seemed for my own team.

I would love to hear feedback. What do you do to train? What other sports do you use when quixotic just isn’t an option?

#foodforthought #coaching

[inquidcoach]

Drillsday - Ultimate Quaffle

I must admit I got this drill from the Chaser captain at Indiana University. I’ve made my own adjustments to his rules for the game to improve a couple aspects I believe important.

Ultimate quaffle is played just like ultimate frisbee. Two teams are on opposite sides of the pitch with all three hoops set up. One team throws it or kicks it to the other team similar to a kick off. Teams must pass the ball up and down the field without running with the quaffle. When the ball hits the ground or is scored it’s a turn over. Players must give the thrower arms length space to make a pass. No swatting out of their hands for a steal. When a team scores or is turned over in the keeper zone let the team start on the goal line. The keys is for players to make clean smart passes and move off the ball. I usually have teams go to a set number. As you see fit there’s multiple things that can be adjusted.

Adjustments:

Number of players per team I usually do 4 vs 4 but I have ran the drill from 3 on 3 to 8 on 8

Number of hoops

This can change based on number of hoops available or how many players you have to make it harder

Number of steps allowed

I always suggest having none and only allowing steps when your trying to stop, but if you have few players and the field is large it’s a simple adjustment. To gateway players 2 or 3 steps is ideal. Many players will abuse this and leap.

The main purpose of this drill/game is to get players looking for good passes and having the ability to distinguish between and good pass and a poor one. Also this drill is great for two handed catching and quickly scoring. If you wait too long you can miss a lot of scoring opportunities!

Hope you had a great drillsday.

#drillsday #quidditch #drill

[inquidcoach]

Inspiration

"Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off." Proverbs‬ ‭23‬:‭18‬ ESV

#inspiration